“There are tales of chivalry, where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress,” a young woman’s voice intones as “Damsel” begins. “This is not one of them.”
Oh, well, thank goodness, I thought, sarcastically and, perhaps, a bit uncharitably. Somewhere in my head I heard Miranda Priestly: Strong female lead? Groundbreaking.
I like a scrappy heroine as much as anyone, but leading with that foot — we’re not like the other girls, we’re the cool girls — is starting to feel stale. “Damsel” isn’t bad, but it feels a bit gnawed upon. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“28 Weeks Later”) from a screenplay by Dan Mazeau, it’s an action movie starring Millie Bobby Brown as Elodie, a princess from a poor kingdom ruled by her father (Ray Winstone) and stepmother (Angela Bassett). She consents to marry the handsome prince from a much wealthier realm, only to discover something far darker is at play here.
There are elements of “Damsel” — including a few shots — that remind me of one of the best feminist action movies in recent memory: “Ready or Not.” In that film, released in 2019, the heroine marries into a rich family, only to discover their family traditions include a pretty horrific ritual that she must endure to survive till morning. This plot runs along similar lines, but in a fairy-tale kingdom where Robin Wright is the queen and also there are dragons. (One bit also echoes “Eyes Wide Shut,” but this is not that kind of movie.)
Elodie is a princess in the latter-day Disney mold: a smart girl who can ride horses, read books, decipher a map and outsmart a trap. She is resourceful and strong and spends a lot of time figuring out how she can escape. At the beginning of the film, she is obedient and obliging and corseted; by the end, she is in a much smaller skirt and taking no guff. In short, she has become self-actualized.
None of this is bad on its face. It’s good to have heroines who love their families and willingly shoulder responsibility and who learn to face their fears. That’s especially true for a younger viewership, including the audience that seems most likely to watch “Damsel”: “Stranger Things” fans who loved Brown as the mysterious Eleven. And it’s nice when there are dragons and castles, too.
But the movie leaves plenty to be desired. The visual effects are, of course, cheap-looking, as is generally true of made-for-Netflix films of this kind. But the bigger problem is in its pacing: The first section, which sets us up for a shock, moves along at a rapid clip. That means the big twist comes early, and thus the bulk of the movie is just Elodie overcoming oddly repetitive obstacles to her own survival. What can’t be overcome is the fact that this section drags on far, far too long, with little variation. And once we discover why she’s been trapped in this situation in the first place, the payoff seems weak by comparison.
Mostly, though, “Damsel” is evidence that studios still don’t realize that a “strong female lead” is not enough to make a movie good. More is required: a strong set of supporting characters, a strong plot, a strong sense of what makes a movie interesting to an audience. Even a strong female lead needs to be a person, with real desires and foibles; a two-dimensional heroine who always makes the right choice is aspirational, but not really believable. It’s not much help to a young audience to learn that you can only be a real heroine if you are physically, emotionally and mentally powerful. Not much help to an older one, either.
Damsel
Rated PG-13, for scenes of fear and distress and danger. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
